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Despite that, Grabb offered to share his personal story to thank the medical professionals who cared for him, and to say that he is grateful for the life-saving care he received when so many other patients had surgeries cancelled last spring for procedures involving eyes, hips and knees, urology and other medical conditions, so space could be freed up in hospitals for COVID patients.
“Not a day goes by 10 months later where I’m not racked by profound guilt. I got my chance at swift, early treatment and relief from suffering, and so many others didn’t,” he said this week.
If people had a cancer diagnosis last spring, most of their treatments and procedures went ahead as planned or have been completed now, said Dr. Kim Nguyen Chi, B.C. Cancer’s chief medical officer. There may be a few isolated cases of cancer patients still facing delays, he said, but insisted that is not happening system-wide.
“I feel for those people, and they may be experiencing some sort of COVID-related issue to their individual experience. But as a system, we’ve tried to maintain (treatment) as much as we can,” Chi said.
Of concern to specialists across Canada, though, is that cancer diagnoses are down five to 10 per cent compared to expectations. New cancer cases would typically grow by a small margin each year, not shrink.
“What that does suggest is that there are people out there that have cancer who have not been diagnosed,” Chi said.
“So if there’s a delay in diagnosis of the cancer, when it is diagnosed it may be more advanced, and that’s what we’re worried about. … We want to really encourage people if they have concerning symptoms or if they’re due for their screening services, that they really should access the system.”
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